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The Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported a 12.5% decrease in overall hospital infections for 2009, as compared with information for the second half of 2008. The report, however, found five local hospitals to have higher rates for urinary tract and central line-associated bloodstream infections. The state is planning next to release data on infections in surgical areas.

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The Pennsylvania Department of Health has reported a 12.5% decrease in overall hospital infections for 2009, compared with information for the second half of 2008. The report, however, found five local hospitals to have higher rates for urinary tract and central-line-associated bloodstream infections. The state is planning next to release data on infections in surgical areas.

HealthGrades' first study of U.S. hospital emergency care found that some facilities have seen vast improvements in quality while others still face problems including overcrowding and adverse events. Data placed 255 hospitals in the top 5% for emergency care, and those facilities' risk-adjusted mortality rate was 39% lower when compared with others in the study.

The American Hospital Association is calling on Congress to extend the Medicaid matching funds program, which is scheduled to expire Dec. 31. The association said if Congress waits until that expiration date to extend the program, states and hospitals that are planning their budgets now and are not assured of funding might make cost-cutting moves that could affect health care.

Congress on Thursday passed a bill that would delay for six months the planned 21% reduction in Medicare physician fees. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the bill was passed to ensure providers' payments were protected even if the Senate was unable to pass a more comprehensive bill.

Gilead Sciences announced that it will let go of 150 employees by the end of the year as a result of closing down its research-and-development unit in Durham, N.C. The biotech firm will transfer about 30 of the workers to Foster City, Calif., where it will consolidate R&D programs for hepatitis B and C treatments.